Andy Reid's a winner (and a loser)
Yael T. AbouhalkahIf Andy Reid becomes the Chiefs’ new head coach, you’ll hear a lot from his supporters about the great track record he built in Philadelphia.
Heck, a 130-93-1 record over 14 years is far better than the Chiefs’ record of 98-126 over the same span. He had nine winning seasons and made the NFL playoffs nine years.
But you will also hear about a lot of the problems he encountered and caused while guiding the Eagles. For instance, his team was 12-20 in the last two years.
And that carries a lot of weight with me. Reid by this time had lost his longtime quarterback, Donovan McNabb, and couldn’t get the franchise headed in the right direction. (Reid’s Eagles were 22-26 the last three years without McNabb.)
This Slate/Deadspin piece summarized the pros and cons in one paragraph:
“There will be plenty of people lining up to tell you that Reid was the worst fourth-quarter tactician in the league, a big-game choker, a bullheaded misuser of talent, a nincompoop, a slowly sinking barge to nowhere. Most of that is true. He was also a better coach than most franchises—and certainly the eternally scattershot and dysfunctional Eagles—usually see.”
Then there’s this from Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Marcus Hayes, who really does not appear to have much respect for Reid. The columnist summed up the coach’s most recent season this way:
“A cataclysmically awful signing; the drug-related death of a nepotistic hire; the insistence by his agent that he could coach in Philadelphia forever; the firing of a loyal, if miscast, lieutenant, and the subsequent, disastrous ascension of an overmatched assistant; the late-game injury to the most valuable player on the team in an unwinnable game; the dismissal of an insubordinate defensive lineman, then his insubordinate position coach. And, throughout, Reid’s pernicious refusal, in defiance of his owner’s dictate, to put a congenial face on the franchise he represented.”
Andy Reid, at least on paper, doesn’t sound like the kind of fresh start that owner Clark Hunt seemed to be seeking after justifiably firing Romeo Crennel.
Still, Reid on paper at least looks like a proven winner, someone who won’t come here as an unproven assistant coach.
If he transforms the worst team in the NFL into one of its best over the next few years, Reid will turn out to be a great hire by Hunt.
If he has a few more seasons like he’s had in Philadelphia recently, though, Reid will be another reason for Chiefs fans to stay away from Arrowhead Stadium.
Kent Mueller
5 months, 2 weeks agoLet me see here…. If Reid bombs, you have an “I told you so” to pull out in the future. If Reid does well, no one will remember this column.